News Corp. and AllThingsD May Part Ways (Report)

AllThingsD, the tech and media site run by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, may leave its owner, News Corporation, when the partnership contract expires at the end of 2013, Reuters reported.

Swisher and Mossberg are due to deliver a business plan next week to Robert Thomson, the former Wall Street Journal managing editor chosen as CEO of the News Corp.'s new publishing spin off. And as their site's contract expires at the end of the year, others suitors are circling it, Reuters said.

Condé Nast, which recently hired Swisher as a contributor to Vanity Fair, and Hearst were among those interested in the site. Other unnamed sources told Reuters that Guggenheim Digital Media, the parent company of Billboard, the Hollywood Reporter and Adweek, might be eyeing AllThingsD, said Reuters.

A News Corp. spokesman declined to comment to the TheWrap. Guggenheim, Condé Nast and Hearst did not immediately respond to requests from TheWrap for comment.

Swisher also did not immediately respond to calls and emails from TheWrap.

According to the site's contract, News Corp. owns the name AllThingsD, though one source told Reuters that the Swisher and Mossberg must approve any sale.

The duo, both Wall Street Journal columnists at the time, developed the site inside News Corp. in April 2007, four years after setting up the Journal's tech conference, D: All Things Digital.

That conference business then came under AllThingsD's umbrella, attracting leading tech executives including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft's Bill Gates.

Reuters said the relationship between News Corp. and the site has been positive but strained in recent years. Though Mossberg writes the "Personal Technology" column for the Wall Street Journal, stories from the Journal have appeared more frequently on AllThingsD in recent months, perhaps leading to some of the tension.

"Like all partnership, there could be more cooperation between the two," one source. told Reuters. "There is tension between AllThingsD and the Wall Street Journal, for example."